Promises broken by administration prompts huge Fight4Spaces protest on Sproul

Students have created a blockade along Sather Gate and the Student Store

Fight4Spaces is protesting on Sproul Plaza, lining up along Sather Gate, as well as in front of the Student Store. The Queer Alliance Resource Center, the LGBTQIIA+ community, and bridges Multicultural Resource Center seek space expansion on the UC Berkeley campus to provide a safe place and community for students.

This protest specifically is in response to administration breaking the promises they made to the participants at the last protest.

Madeleine Calvi, a third year English major involved with the cause, said: “Dean Greenwell didn’t show up to the emergency ASUC board meeting which he agreed to call and promised to be at our last protest. Also, [administration] moved the board meeting three times. And then, after promising it would be an open meeting, barred everyone but the protest leaders from entering, and reportedly talked over, disrespected, and dismissed them inside.”

“Some protesters are also upset about the article the ASUC published in the Daily Cal, which shut us down rather than engaging with us at the emergency board meeting they had agreed to call, and then moved and postponed three times. Additionally, the article says they’re refusing both bridges and QARC’s demands without acknowledging or giving a singe reason for the denial of QARC’s demands, which were not requesting the Student Store, but rather the 5th floor of Eshleman. This article ignored and circumvented bridges, QARC, and the meeting the ASUC Board had agreed to have on these issues.”

As the crowd grew agitated at not being able to pass through Sather Gate, one of the protesters spoke up. She said, “I get it, I’m a student too. But we need to make people aware.”

 

 

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